IATA now expects its member airlines to post a global profit of US$2.5bn in 2010, a major improvement compared with the Geneva-based organisation’s previous forecast released in March of a US$2.8bn loss. Outgoing Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said: “We thought that it would take at least three years to recover the US$81bn (14.3%) drop in revenues in 2009. But the US$62bn top line improvement this year puts us about 75% on the way to pre-crisis levels,” he said. “The US$2.5bn profit comes with some important health warnings. First, this represents a net margin of just 0.5%, which is a long way from sustainable profitability. Second, a major part of the global industry is still posting big losses. A stagnating economy, strikes, natural disasters, and a currency crisis have left European carriers as the only region really struggling with an anticipated US$2.8bn loss. He highlighted Asia-Pacific carriers continuing to benefit from strong regional growth and that North American carriers are expected to return a profit of US$1.9bn. www.iata.org

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does
not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

No one has commented yet, why don't you start the ball rolling?

Add your comment

First Name

Surname

Email Address

Company (Not obligatory)

Country/City

Comment

- You must be a registered subscriber using the email address entered to submit a comment, or you will be sent a confirmation email before your comment will appear.
- Your comment will be checked before appearing, which may take several working hours.